Libby Ward

Music is important in expressing how a person feels and telling what words simply cannot say. It helps people to either convey their emotions or to let them all out. At least—that’s what Griswold High School Students say.Most, if not all Helix students who were recently surveyed said that music had helped them express what they were feeling at a time where they couldn’t express it in another way. As one of the students put it, “Some people can't verbally say what they want. So they will use music as a way to get that out. It's like in the Bumblebee movie; Bee loses his voice and uses music to communicate.”

However, some music is more popular than others. Almost 17% of students said that their favorite genre was Country. Another 8% of students said that their favorite music was Rap. Over a third, or 33% said that their favorite music was Rock & Roll. No students said that their favorite music was pop. Over 8% said that their favorite music was Hip Hop, while another 8% said that their favorite music was Classical. Despite the buzz it gets in the media, 0% said that their favorite music was K-Pop. And 25% said that they didn’t have a favorite genre and just listened to a variety of music.

It seems that Rock and Roll has managed to take over the hearts of the high school students, which is somewhat surprising, considering that most Rock and Roll is from older generations, compared to the music composed today.

On the topic of composing, one student says that composing songs really helps them in dealing with whatever problems they may have. They said, “Most of the compositions I write/perform are the ways I cope with everything in life that is going on around me.”

Yet, most students have never considered what they would do if they no longer had music. Most students speculated with wild answers such as, “I’d Explode”, “I would cry. Period,” and, the most dramatic, “(I would) die.” Seemingly, this is understandable, considering the student’s previous responses to how music helps them.

Only one student out of those surveyed seemed to have any logical idea as to what they would do without music, which would be to, “...watch more movies.”

Not all music genres are important to the students, however. Most, if not everyone surveyed had a huge say in what genre they hated the most. Half of the students said that they hated Country. Only 8% said that they hated Rap or Rock and Roll. None singled out Pop or Hip Hop and Blues. Just 8% said that they hated Classical or K-Pop. Over 16% said that they didn’t hate a specific genre.

Despite all of the hatred, they can all agree that music is extremely important in expressing themselves. One student says that, “We listen to different types of music depending on what we are doing and how we feel or want to feel.”

Another explained that, “It (music) can show emotions in which words can never even begin to describe! Where words fail, music speaks."

Another student said that, “(Music) makes you feel things without words! That’s wild! Not everything should have to be said, some things should be felt.”

All in all, music is extremely important to teenagers, and if it were to disappear, there may quite be an apocalypse of angry teens trying to find new ways to express themselves. So, the next time a song pops up, no matter the genre, someone will definitely be using it to express their feelings.

Politics is a subject that most would avoid unless, of course, they wanted to get into the controversy of who is the “best” candidate and who should have won the election, as well as what each candidate stands for. Also, if by some chance you didn’t know who won the presidential election, it was Donald Trump. Do most of the Griswold High School students agree with who won, or, even agree with each other?Throughout the whole debacle that came with last fall’s elections, there was much debate over the candidates. Moreover, if you want to be distinct, mainly the controversy between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the two candidates who ended up fighting against each other for the nation’s highest office. All the same, there were many candidates before the race was narrowed down besides Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton who also received votes. Most of these candidates did not make it through the whole election season. Seemingly, there were problems with all of the candidates, but none seemed to be more controversial than Clinton and Trump. Each side had their own public issues in the people’s view; it was interesting to see the Griswold High School students votes, and to see if they had agreed with any of the issues surrounding the new President and the close competitors next to him.A summary of the issues that many people thought Hillary had were: commanding little trust, the positions she “adopted,” and the representation that she would be the first female president. Even with these issues present, there still were quite a few votes for Hillary, so many, in fact, that she actually won the popular vote. Trump did not have it so easy either, and lots of controversy about him being the president started to rise from the very beginning of his campaign. The main issues the people had with Trump were: his new foreign policies, building a wall, and the belief that he doesn’t have much respect for the female population.Despite these concerns, the majority of people had voted for either Trump and Hillary in the end. Still, what about the Helix High School student’s opinion? About 56% of the students would have voted for Donald Trump, only 6% for Hillary Clinton, 6% would have selected Tim Kaine, 0% voted for Mike Pence, 0% voted for Gary Johnson, 0% voted for Bill Weld, 12% voted for Jill Stein and 0% voted for Ajamu Baraka.Probably the most telling statistic is that 25% said they didn’t care about voting for anyone or they didn’t want to even answer the question.As the survey shows, almost half of the students favored Donald Trump. These results were rather surprising, as many people find issues with the new President. Despite these issues, Helix students all seemed to agree that they wanted Donald Trump as their president.Then, there were the candidates who got a low amount of student votes such as Hillary Clinton, Jill Stein, and Tim Kaine. It was rather surprising to see that Helix students favored Jill Stein and Tim Kaine, rather than Hillary Clinton. It was especially surprising to see that more female students wanted Donald Trump to be president more than Hillary Clinton. Helix Donald Trump supporters who are female were a surprising 31%, while only 25% of males supported him.Now, about the percentage who didn’t care about the candidates or they didn’t like the question. Seeing as this percentage is gaining on Donald Trump, it is a little concerning. The results from those who answered like this were evenly distributed between females and males. This certainly merits some concerns for our future, considering that the classes will be graduating and deciding on their president.If Helix students didn’t care about the candidates, then what about the adults who can vote? Do they feel the same way? Thankfully, most of the Helix students did choose to vote for a candidate, hopefully securing our future. Despite all of the differences, thankfully 87% of Helix High School students agreed that whomever they voted for did not affect personal relationships between family and friends, while 12% said that it had. Because of all the debates and fighting in the last election, it was shocking that only 12% said that it had, because of the whole ordeal that the country witnessed. It was expected that more would say that their family/friends relationships had been affected, but delightfully they did not.And, finally for the other polled results, 43% said that their family/friends agreed with them on their chosen candidate. Another 43% said that they didn’t know/didn’t care whether their family agreed with them on their candidate vote, and finally, 12% said that their friends/family did not agree with their vote.So, maybe at the next election, really take a look at your candidates. It may affect your future more than you think.​

Elizabeth Ward

Hi, hello, hola; or whatever greeting you like to use! My legal name is Elizabeth, however everyone knows me as Libby. However, you can call me whatever you want. Generally I like to think that I’m a very creative person. I draw, sometimes I sing, and my favorite hobby is writing. Currently I have an anthology online of short stories I’ve written and posted online to a website called Quotev. The response I got was astounding, so I’m going to continue posting on there. I chose Publications for this reason, and I can confidently say that I’ve learned a lot.​